STX Finland to complete and outfit two well intervention vessels

STX Finland Oy and Norway's Eide Marine Semi AS, a subsidiary of Eide Marine Services A/S, have signed a contract worth more than EUR 300 million for the outfitting, completion and delivery of two highly sophisticated well intervention vessels .

In December last year, Lupatech SA of Brazil announced that it had signed contracts worth $899 million with Eide Marine Semi AS for the chartering of two vessels for light workover services, including crew and operation of the vessels, to provide services under contracts signed by Lupatech with Petrobras.

According to information released by Eide Marine, the Lupatech vessels will be able to work in water depths from 1,100 m - 2,500 m and are specially designed for maintenance of oil and gas wells. This includes coiled tubing, slick line and wireline operations. The vessels can also do predrilling of chasing pipe and installation / de-installation of wet Christmas trees. Developed by Eide Marine, the vessels are claimed to provide significant improved seaworthiness compared with other vessels on the market.

STX Finland says the technically advanced well intervention vessels with a deadweight of 31,000 tons will have a length of 122 meters and a width of 45 meters. The vessels are designed to operate in rough open sea conditions on Brazilian continental shelf. The vessels have innovative hullforms securing high seakeeping characteristics together with DP3 dynamic positioning system and thruster arrangement. Large deck area provides opportunity to arrange all well serving equipment in most efficient way.

The project will create a high outfitting work load for STX Finland and its network. The work on the first hull will begin at STX Rauma shipyard in April 2012 and on the second hull in June 2012. The intervention vessels will be delivered from Rauma shipyard in March 2013 and June 2013. The contract is subject to certain financing conditions.

STX Finland says the contract shows its ability to provide competitive services and win significant contracts in this highly sophisticated and demanding offshore business segment. The contract is also an important part of STX Finland's diversification strategy, in which the company is continuing to expand its operations into new business areas such as offshore business segment.

"The outfitting contract for Eide Marine Services is a very important project for STX Finland. It shows that our strategic plan to expand our product and services portfolio,and to improve our global competitiveness and presence, has been successful",says Timo Suistio, COO of STX Finland. "The project is very challenging both in terms of amount of outfitting work and the management of several global networking entities," notes Mr. Suistio.